Bombay HC Grants Interim Stay on BCI Circular on Age Limit for Law Aspirants

Chief Justice Manjula Chellar and Justice Kulkarni heard two petitions on January 6, 2017, challenging age limit imposed on law aspirants by Bar Council of India.

The High Court of Bombay granted interim stay on the circular which is issued by Bar Council of India or BCI regarding age limit for the aspirants who are seeking admission to law courses. Chief Justice Manjula Chellar and Justice Kulkarni heard two petitions on January 6, 2017, challenging age limit imposed on law aspirants by Bar Council of India.

Initially, Bar Council of India imposed the restriction on the age limit for law courses in the year 2008. As per BCI, the maximum age limit to seek admission to five-year Bachelor of Law programme is 20 years and the age limit for seeking admission to three-year LLB programme is 30 years.

While imposing an interim stay on the circular issued by BCI, HC observed that most of the students are willing to pursue law just as an additional qualification to help them in their concerned job. Most of the law graduates are not practising law. Therefore, BCI took the step to make law courses available only for those who are serious and focused as well as practise law. Hence, it imposed the age limit for law courses. The court will again hear the petition after four weeks.

On the other hand, the petitioners claimed that the age limit imposed by BCI is restricting the aspirants who wish to join law courses after entering a job.

The provision of age limit by BCI was quashed by Haryana and Punjab High Court in the year 2011. In the year 2013, BCI issued a fresh notification that age limit is no more valid. In the year 2015, High Court of Madras held that the notification issued by BCI is invalid. Currently, the judgement is upheld by Supreme Court too.